Bending With The Pinky

Obviously it would be ideal if you could do it with solely your pinky, but an alternative would be to put more than one finger on the string and bend with all of them. Even one more finger can make it much easier.

I think you're right, Gotdablues! Your best bet is to work on your reach (or do lots and lots of pinkie strengthening exercises!!! :D ). I can't do a bend with my pinkie either and just forget about vibrato with it, too! Developing your reach is going to benefit you in lots of different ways! My advice would have to be:

Stretch, stretch, stretch!

:D

you don't really need to stretch, on the bend just can use your ringfinger with the other two fingers backing it up for strength.
don't have to follow the pattern of first finger on fret 1, second finger on fret2,etc... just slide your third finger to that 8fret for the bend instead of a stretch.

Thanks for the replies,

I must admit, I am the type who stays "inside the box". Streching seams mostly unatural to me.

But i have noticed that earlier, (before everyones great advice) I was trying to bend with only
limited help from the other fingers, in other words, the ring finger was helping with the bend sure,
but it was back behind its own fret, but now I'm working on sliding that ring fing up behing the pink
and yes there's a ton more leverage now.

That's the cool thing about the Guitar, the final chapter in the final book on technique has not been
written.....

And probably never will be

Cheers

Pat

Is there a noticeable advantage of being able to bend well with one finger rather than using two or more? My fingers aren't really strong so I usually bend with three fingers. I could easily bend with two but three has become a habit. Will this every slow down my playing?

on exceptions:
say you have to play this pattern repeatedly fast, then it would be better to just use one finger to save time

e|15----------------15---------------
B|--12--15-----------12--15--------
G|----------14b16------------14b16- etc...

but overal I think 3 fingers are used most of the time unless when needed otherwise, doesn't seem to slow down any of the greats

I think azerty has it right you always wnat to augment a bend with other fingers, very rarely will you use a single finger bend. In this case use your ring finger to help the pinky. You can kind of shift your hand down like azerty mentioned.

I frequently just bend with my pointer finger, it's a great technique to have.

Infact, I almost NEVER bend with 3 fingers. How do you do unision bends if you bend like this? I find that my ring finger is enough, but usually use my middle and ring finger.

I'll record some different phrases in a bit that, in my opinion, can only be done if you get down bending with just your pointer.

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, there's a lot of other ways bending with 3 fingers will limit you. I'm going to try and record some video and see if I can upload it anywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IkVKUN9ix4

^ first time using youtube, let me know if you have any problems. I use just my pointer a bunch of times (mainly for emphasis) and then I use just the ring finger, just the middle finger. It may be hard to see when I'm doing what, I'm no Spielberg :P

Is there a noticeable advantage of being able to bend well with one finger rather than using two or more? My fingers aren't really strong so I usually bend with three fingers. I could easily bend with two but three has become a habit. Will this every slow down my playing?

I can bend with each finger individually, but it is much more controlled if I use one extra finger to give it some anchorage and create the bend by rotating the arm. This is where most people go wrong - string bends is a whole arm function, not just one finger.

Best,

A :-)

Nice licks Taso. That is a good example of the flexibility created by bending with different fingers to set up for the next set of notes.

good video taso, those were some good examples. Also, nice Les Paul, i've always liked the sunburst.

thanks gents - I have no idea if Paul or David or Nick or Tom or anyone has talked about it, but after my first experience with youtube, I think it'd be a great way to supplement tabs/audioclips in the lessons. It may be too tough for GN to host the videos, but a la youtube, it was easy, even for me.

Taso, very nice technnique and tone in the video .. what amp were you using? You sounded great, and your playing looked very fluid!

I bend with every finger, the lick you showed I would use my pinky with the middle and ring fingers assisting.

Bending is just something you have to practice until you have the strength. For years I played acoustic guitar but I would play it like electric bending strings. If you really want to develop bending strength practice on an acoustic guitar often. When you go back to electric the strings will feel like rubber bands. 8)